Zephros Bantam
'Zephros Bantam '(1908-2001) was a Rramidori historian, author who taught at the University of Correfuscidia for nearly sixty years. Originally known for his work with the history of the Rramid Empire, Bantam is often considered to have revolutionized the way that academics thought about history, and is often cited as one of the most prominent historians and academics of the twentieth century; his work on the history nationalism and the nature of states and empires was radically different from most of the work that came before him. Bantam was a native of Rramidor, born in Naeõmos in 1908, who went on the attend the University of Correfuscidia (as part of Varagon College), obtaining his bachelor's of history from the university in 1930, his master's in 1932 and his Ph.D in 1935. Unusually, he remained at the university to teach, beginning his famous course on the history of the Rramid Empire in 1937, and published his first book on Rramidi history in 1938. In 1952, Bantam published The Construction of a Nation, which in many ways revolutionized historians' view of nationalism; perhaps its boldest claim was that the so-called "nations" of Celta, Aemorea, and Qarn were constructions of the Anglean Empire in order to curb Rramidi nationalism, and that the conception of a Rramidi people did not exist until the Anglean Empire. Bantam continued to teach at Correfuscidia for the next sixty years until his death at 93, forty-five of them as director of undergraduate studies in history; his sixteen books include The Myth of Empire ''in 1966 and ''Dreaming of the Leviathan: Somers, Marvaputhram and Antov and the Illusory Third Path ''in 1987. Among his students were many of the most influential figures of the twentieth century, including the Rhamidian dictator César Antov. Beyond his scholarship, Bantam was one of the most prominent academics and intellectuals of the twentieth century, known popularly and frequently commenting on issues of politics and society throughout his lifetime. In 2007, Corresfuscidia University named Bantam College in his honor. Contribution to Scholarship Perhaps Bantam's most controversial and innovative claim was in ''The Construction of a Nation, where he argued that the idea of a Rhamidi people did not exist until the Anglean Empire, and that the Angleans constructed the other so-called "nations" within Rhamidia in order to combat Rhamidi nationalism. He spoke most notably of the Celtons, whom he argued were not a unified people during the Rramid imperial era, and that in that time the difference between a resident of Celta and a resident of Rhamusia was no greater than between residents of Rhamidia Major. Furthermore, the peoples of various areas within the empire conceived of themselves very differently, and that the view that there was a united Rramidi "nation" that controlled the Rramid Empire was a construction of Anglean scholarship and an attempt to create a unified Rhamidia in opposition to Anglea. Instead, the Rramid Empire was a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities who all considered themselves relatively distinct, their views of culture changing constantly throughout the empire's massive two thousand years of existence. This view is one that he extrapolated on in further books; in 1966's The Myth of Empire, he goes as far as to argue that the "Rramid Empire" did not exist in the way that it is conceived of today, not only as a national unit but as a continuous and united polity. He uses this view to analyze other empires, notably Anglea and Toran, to construct an argument that the idea of an "empire" has many meanings in different contexts and is not a useful and consistent concept - the Toranese Empire of 1500 was not in any way the same thing as the Rramid Empire in 1000 BCE, and neither have anything in common with a state such as the Noriki Empire or imperialist Eqota.